Brussels university to honor Ken Loach despite anti-Semitism claims

The Université Libre de Bruxelles (ULB) will award British filmmaker Ken Loach on Thursday with an honorary degree, despite opposition from Jewish groups accusing him of holding anti-Semitic views.

“We have, with rigor and independence, examined all the elements of this case and concluded that there is no anti-Semitism or revisionism for which to reproach Ken Loach,” ULB Chancellor Yvon Englert told Belgian media on Thursday, ahead of the ceremony.

“Retracting the honor we decided to give him would be entirely paradoxical,” Englert added, saying that the filmmaker had a right to “freedom of expression” and stressing that the university did not share a number of his opinions on the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.

Several Jewish associations asked the university not to honor Loach, who is known for his strong defense of the Palestinian cause, with an honorary doctorate, accusing the filmmaker of “unacceptable tolerance of anti-Semitism and the revisionist approach of his advocacy on behalf of Palestine,” the university said in a statement earlier this month.

The groups based their request on an interview Loach gave to the BBC on the margins of the Labour Party congress in September 2017, in which he denied allegations of anti-Semitism in the party and said: “All history is our common heritage to discuss and analyze. The founding of the state of Israel, for example, based on ethnic cleansing is there for us all to discuss.”

Asked by the university to clarify his comments, Loach said in a written statement he “condemned all forms of Holocaust denial.”

“All my life, I’ve taken the side of those who are persecuted and marginalized and to paint me as some kind of anti-Semite simply because I add my voice to those who denounce the distress of the Palestinians is grotesque,” he wrote.

Belgian Prime Minister Charles Michel, a ULB law graduate, waded into the debate on Wednesday. “Anti-Semitism cannot be tolerated whatever its form. That also goes for my alma mater,” Michel said in a speech commemorating Israel’s 70-year anniversary at Brussels’ Great Synagogue.

Socialist politician Paul Magnette, also a ULB alumnus, reacted on Twitter by urging the university to “resist political pressure, from wherever it comes.”

“I think some people would like to make this a political fight,” Englert responded Thursday. “I’m the chancellor of an independent university that has always put values, including the fight against racism, anti-Semitism and xenophobia, at the forefront … I have no desire to enter into the political arena, where all blows are permitted.”

Loach was chosen by ULB’s academic council because of his “militant work relating to social conflicts and the fight for the rights of workers and illegal immigrants,” the university said in a statement defending its decision.

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Irene Duym

It is a shame that using “freedom of expression” as an argument turns out to be authorising negationism.

Posted on 4/26/18 | 4:14 PM CEST

François P

I fully support the stance of the ULB and Ken Loach. It is those who try to silence pro-Palestinian voices with accusations of anti-semitism who are really smearing the holocaust.

Posted on 4/26/18 | 4:29 PM CEST

Dee Walsh

He is an odious racist.

Posted on 4/26/18 | 4:34 PM CEST

Irene Duym

@François P
Palestinians rights? How about Israelis’ rights to live on their soil? Israel is surrounded by Arab countries where Palestinians are most welcome. Obviously, you are totally unware of or never bother to learn about Jewish history.

Posted on 4/26/18 | 4:44 PM CEST

Max Hall

Israel is a white settler colony. They invaded and occupied a foreign land before violently oppressing and subjugating the native population. Even other white settler colonies like southern Rhodesia and South Africa never brutalised the natives quite like the Israeli’s do. These abuses have only become worse under Benzion Mileikowsky………oops, I mean’t Benjamin Netanyahu. I don’t think they like it when people use their white European names.